I work IT in the ATM background industry (not for any major bank), so I'm getting a kick etc. etc...

The question I really have to ask is why Windows at all? I would think Linux would be much better for systems that can run indefinitely without a reboot, more secure, and less prone to crashing.

In the case of the ones I pay attention to, it's because they have to run several peripherals for which the drivers are easiest acquired for Windows (a lot of these machines are not new enough to be using USB peripherals), so in order to run the card reader, bill validators, cash cassettes etc. in sync with the ATM software, all of which the makers seem to have only provided Win drivers for, Windows becomes somewhat necessary.

Most of the government/police labs are still processing drug/tox data and entering case information on Windows NT boxes with internet access, and you're worried about the ATM not supporting "pinch and slide" on the touch screen?

I was under the impression systems that required more stability and security (such as banking systems) were better off with older OS's because they have been more rigorously tested and that's why even 3 full release versions of Windows later XP is still supported.

Also XP was pretty darned awesome (compared to some of it's siblings). I am enjoying 7 though. Vista made me want to choke a b*tch and 8 looks like it was designed by someone on acid despite its supposed performance improvements.

Protip: If you have to release a "Classic" skin for your OS due to enormous consumer pressure perhaps you shouldn't have turned it into a psychedelic nightmare in the first place. STOP TRYING TO BE APPLE!!! You suck at it.

All the self-checkout machines in grocery stores run XP. I figured out how to mess up the ones at a local store. I get to the desktop, pull up the accessibility menu, get text to speech, then it starts saying "ERROR ERROR ERROR" over and over. Keeps my kids laughing all weekend.

Unpatched XP machines running ATM's are the least of your worries. Why would some thief/hacker bother to figure out how to get console on an ATM, when they could just throw on one of those overlay devices on the card scanner, and harvest hundreds of numbers from people who don't realize it's there?

We've known for over a decade now that there is no reason to go to the extra effort of hacking an ATM when it is much more lucrative to bypass it completely. Also, every ATM I've ever worked on has always been at least 1 complete OS cycle behind the general population in order for the manufacturer to have enough time to implement all security patches and bugfixes available,

slayer199:The question I really have to ask is why Windows at all? I would think Linux would be much better for systems that can run indefinitely without a reboot, more secure, and less prone to crashing.

They'd have to complete rewrite their POS software to run on Linux along with all the systems that interface with it. The cost and risks of a complete rewrite probably isn't worth the benefits of running Linux.

I am not sure why any regular person would care. The banks should care because they are the ones liable if there is a security issue, not you. If they don't care enough to mitigate the risk, you shouldn't either.

Kristoph57:slayer199: Windows XP was an excellent OS for Windows (compared to ME, Vista, etc). Obviously, it's WAY past it's time and the EOL is this summer.

The question I really have to ask is why Windows at all? I would think Linux would be much better for systems that can run indefinitely without a reboot, more secure, and less prone to crashing.

You're thinking like an end user. You've gotta think like a job creator, if they're not crashing, not rebooting, and functioning well for long periods of time, you can't sell maintenance contracts.

My file server is running XP. I havent tinkered with it much since I put it in 10 years ago. It's also been running non-stop. with the exception on replacing the battery backup a couple times.

Oddly enough we have so machines at work(industrial) which have HMI's running Windows ME. And as much trouble as i had when ME came out, its surprising that these things never crash. with near 100% duty cycles.

All in all my file server, and these HMI's and the ATM's have 1 thing in common. they run almost nothing but 1 piece of software which is designed to run well on them. So they dont run into all the issues that you would normally see with constant use.

my computers that i use normally are win7/win7 pro/win 8.1 pro/win 8.1 pro i occasionally have issues with the 7's but after learning the ins and outs of 8 so far they have been pretty damn robust.